The one and only animal in the US found to have coronavirus is a Malaysian tiger at a zoo. Tigers are a very different species of cat than domestic cats. “They’re even in a different genus,” said Katen Terio, Chief of Zoological Pathology, University of Illinois and expert on wild cats’ medical issues.
With more than a 1.36M human coronavirus cases globally and 368K in the US—and a multitude of them having cats and dogs as pets—Dr. Terio notes that it’s significant that the first clinical case confirmed in the US was a tiger, not a domestic cat.
If you are feeling sick and suspect COVID-19, restrict contact with both humans and pets, advises the CDC. Have someone else care for you pet. If you are not sick, practice standard good hygiene with care of humans or pets: washing your hands before and after coming into contact with any food, supplies, or any waste.
Worldwide there are reports companion animals starving or being killed—evidence of the vulnerable existence animals endure at the whim of humans. And there is an influx of animals at rescues abandoned by fearful humans.
Please…have a heart.
The chewing llama with the Dr. Seuss hairdo
Due to the coronavirus, some shelters are closing. Please offer any help you can. https://bit.ly/2x5zMqd
The Associated Press reported that as many as one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals are killed every year by six-pack rings. Who knows how many land animals.
from Alley Cat Allies
“The rabies risk associated with feral cat colonies is negligible, but sometimes it still comes up when discussing outdoor cats. Studies show that feral cats are healthy. Their home is outdoors, and they are part of our landscape. Rabies is often misguidedly used to justify the continued use of “roundups” of feral cats, which has resulted in decades of catch and kill schemes. In fact, feral cats are not a reservoir for rabies, and the virus itself is not nearly the threat it once was in the United States. There has not been a single case of a human contracting rabies from a cat in the past 40 years in the U.S.
Despite the hyped-up media attention rabies receives, rabies control efforts are actually a public health victory—there were only 31 confirmed cases of rabies in humans in America from 2003 to June 2013.1 None of those cases were known to have come from cats. Billed as a “killer disease,” rabies cases in humans are highly uncommon and also highly preventable.
Alley Cat Allies has the facts on rabies to shatter the myths about the disease—so that you fully understand and can inform others. Armed with this information, you can spread the word that feral cats are an extremely negligible rabies risk.
Here you’ll find a full-range of information and facts about the rabies virus: its low prevalence in feral cats, that rabies vaccinations are protocol in Trap-Neuter-Return programs, how long rabies vaccines last, the history of rabies in the United States, and information on programs that have been proven effective in targeting the true sources of rabies: wildlife.”
LAST CHANCE: South Korea is funding cruel dog cloning experiments—in which most die or suffer severe pain—to engineer ‘designer’ sniffer dogs for airports. SIGN to urge South Korea to end this painful and unnecessary experiment before we hand in the petition NEXT WEEK: https://bit.ly/2VeBkrN
From http://www.lamanchaanimalrescue.org
A vacationing businessman was walking along a beach when he saw a young boy. Along the shore were many starfish that had been washed up by the tide and were sure to die before the tide returned.
The boy walked slowly along the shore and occasionally reached down and tossed the beached starfish back into the ocean. The businessman, hoping to teach the boy a little lesson in common sense, walked up to the boy and said, “I have been watching what you are doing, son. You have a good heart, and I know you mean well, but do you realize how many beaches there are around here and how many starfish are dying on every beach every day. Surely such an industrious and kind hearted boy such as yourself could find something better to do with your time.
Do you really think that what you are doing is going to make a difference?
The boy looked up at the man, and then he looked down at a starfish by his feet. He picked up the starfish, and as he gently tossed it back into the ocean, he said, “It makes a difference to that one.”
~Anonymous
Untold Animal Stories 
